An Analogy of Isolation

In her book: Isolation - A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader, Shelley Trebesch uses an example from her youth.  She and her grandfather decided to refurbish an old chair.  She stripped a layer of paint only to find another layer and then another.  After much work, going from layer to layer she finally found the original wood which was a beautiful oak.  The analogy is that God uses times of isolation in our lives to strip off identities that are not the original wood (our true base identity in Christ).  We have identities built around getting accolades from our ministries, we have identities built on what we accomplish or don't accomplish, identities built around life sentences.   The minister has to get to a place to minister out of being not doing.  That being is directly related to relationship with Christ.

It is an identity not based on who we think we are, who others think we are, what we think others think we are, but based on who God says we are.